On the one hand, the pandemic situation since 2020 made it impossible to hold public meetings, so that for an indeterminate period of time, the usual end-of-year exhibitions could not be held, which are generally intended to give visibility to the practices, studies and creations carried out during a year of work. One of their intentions is to generate a space for exchange and camaraderie, listening to the work of others and making their own work known. This is an opportunity for encounters between people who share the same activity but who have no direct contact with each other, since in the Taller de música y arte sonoro the classes are individual. In such circumstances, friends, colleagues and the general public also participate. Not being able to hold meetings made it necessary to look for an alternative. So for a long time I thought about what could be done about it, but none of the options I imagined satisfied me.
On the other hand, being in charge of the Taller, I had to witness and accompany the creation and elaboration of very good works, beautiful and made with total dedication and commitment on the part of their authors. As time went by, the number of really good works grew, but the cycle had yet to be completed with their public exhibition. Some of the people who participate in the Taller are artists who are pursuing their artistic careers; the circulation of their work is guaranteed, and in other cases, it is not. In other cases, no. And a fundamental part of the processes is the publication of the works so that this energy circulates, returns and feeds back into the processes. Finding an alternative to the end-of-year exhibitions has become an urgent necessity.
Although I have been giving distance classes virtually for many years, long before the pandemic, the number of musicians and artists who started taking classes at the Taller and who live far away from where I am has increased significantly. This also gave impetus to this project, because when the restrictions were lifted, holding an end-of-year meeting was no longer an option because there would be no chance for many to attend physically.
This is how the idea of Pléyade came about as a way of capturing the work done by musicians and sound artists from different geographies between 2020 and 2023 within the framework of the Taller de música y arte sonoro. In this way it becomes possible to complete the creative cycles through publication. From there, complex artistic production and curatorial decisions ensued in order to prepare a piece (a music album is), which tries to be graceful, interesting, attractive, coherent, unified and diverse at the same time within a finite total time span. At the same time, to try to ensure that it is neither completely homogeneous nor a succession of disjointed works, that they coexist well with each other, and above all that each one can have its own prominent place. The task of selection was not easy; I regretted that authors, works and also music of genres different from those that appear here, but which are also present in the classes of the Taller through its participants, were left out of the Pléyade.
Once the selection process was over, it was time to put them in order, to make adjustments and exchanges with their authors, and to start preparing the mastering process. Of each piece and of the album as a whole. Not to mention questions such as what title it would bear or what the cover art would be like. For the latter, I decided to call Francisco Bas, my son, who takes beautiful photographs, to take care of it, knowing that he could capture the idea and that he could edit them.
Respecto del proceso de masterización lo inicié en mi estudio particular y culminó en el estudio del LIPM, Laboratorio de Investigación y Producción Musical, ubicado en el Centro Cultural Recoleta de Buenos Aires gracias al apoyo de Javier Leichman, su director, y junto con Gabriel Lucena su técnico. El LIPM, considerado durante muchos años, como el más importante centro de música electroacústica de Latinoamérica. Es el lugar en el que asistí a mis primeros conciertos de música electroacústica a finales de los 80′.
The mastering process began in my private studio and culminated in the studio of LIPM, Laboratorio de Investigación y Producción Musical, located in the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, thanks to the support of Javier Leichman, its director, and together with Gabriel Lucena, its technician. The LIPM, considered for many years as the most important centre for electroacoustic music in Latin America. It is the place where I attended my first electroacoustic music concerts in the late 80s.
With Franco Falistoco, director of this label, we already had a relationship of sharing activities, interviews in his programme NOISE is the Message (El RUIDO es el Mensaje), music, talks and other things. When I found out at the beginning of this year that he had the wonderful idea of creating CALATHEA Experimenta, I didn’t hesitate to propose him to publish the album here.
And here we are!
I am extremely happy with the artistic result thanks to the works and their authors (I recommend that you stay tuned to their works, publications and concerts). My total gratitude to them: Laura, Mar, Anésio, Gustavo, Gaby, Camila and Markos, for their vibe and their talents. With all my students from the Taller de música y arte sonoro, whom I still see weekly and whom I don’t see anymore. I don’t stop learning things all the time with them. Thanks also to all those who participated, collaborated and put up with this project.
Thanks to Francisco Bas, Mina Baxx, María Mansilla, Franco Falistoco, Gabriel Lucena, Javier Leichman and the LIPM CCR. Pléyade personally has to do also with all this, and goes beyond music and sound art.
I hope you enjoy the works.
▌PABLO BAS
▌August — 2023
